Musings of a polymer clay artist

I’ve been trying to string an elastic bracelet for over a week now. First, I strung it and then realized I needed small beads between the polymer clay beads. Took it apart and added the small beads. One of the elastic cords came untied (despite superglue) when I was trying to tug the knots into a polymer clay bead. Restrung that one and then the cords stretched too much. Took it apart, reamed the holes in the polymer clay beads so the cord didn’t get stuck and restrung. The knots came undone again.

I’m going to end up using a whole spool of this cord on this one bracelet if this keeps up.

What is the best way to secure elastic cord? I’ve been tying knots and then covering the knots in superglue. Obviously, this is not the best method. It’s .7mm Elastic Magic cord. Would crimping it be better?

February was a big bead month for me. For some reason, I was full of bead ideas and managed to make enough for 3 tumbler loads in a row. So I’m set on beads to list for 6 months or more. So now that I don’t have to make beads I can focus on not bead stuff I’ve been meaning to do. And I did, for awhile. But unfortunately all those ideas I had for not bead stuff while I was busy making beads have been lost. Can’t remember anything. Figures.

So I decided to dig through all my stuff and find all the previously made not bead stuff and list it on Artfire. Well, not all of it. Some is still on Etsy, some got trashed for not being up to current standards and some have been or will be taken apart to be resused.

Go to Craft Test Dummies and check out their contests. Lovely goodies to be won. The polymer clay prize is unbelievable! All kinds of goodies from Lisa Pavelka! I’ve been dying to try Pardo clay and the other stuff looks really interesting as well.

Check out the other posts as well. They review all kinds of crafty things and have frequent giveaways.

Switching from Ebay to Artfire is a big part of this. While sales have lacked for months on Ebay, I was comfortable there. It’s familiar. Artfire looks great and the fees are so much better than Ebay, but it’s a young site and doesn’t have the traffic and popularity of Ebay. Losing that traffic (even if it wasn’t resulting in sales) is scary. I’m going to have to put more work into promoting and I really don’t know how to do that. Rather, I do know some ways, but lack the opportunity/money/ability to do them.

And then there’s money. I don’t have much. I’ve just barely had the sales to cover my Ebay fees and for a few months I’ll have dual fees (Ebay and Artfire Pro account). Speaking of Artfire’s pro account, due to their recently announced fee hike, I’ll need to go pro a month sooner than I had planned to lock in a lower rate. I’ve got the funds to cover this month’s Ebay fees and a month of Artfire Pro, but that’s about it unless I get some sales.

And that means I have no money for supplies and possibly won’t be able to cover fees after this month. I’ll be able to take a bit from our tax refund but that’s going to a desperately needed purchase of clay. (I’ve been out of translucent for months). I’ve been self-supporting (meaning paying for my own expenses, fees, taxes, etc as well as supplies) for over 5 years so losing that ability is devastating mentally. Not to mention that our household funds can’t really afford to support me either.

So I’m sitting here, trying to think of alternatives, ways to make this work, how to increase sales and honestly, I’m not coming up with anything. But closing the whole thing down isn’t appealing either. I’ll still create. I can’t imagine not creating. But without the business to raise money for supplies, eventually I’ll run out and then I’ll be completely out of luck (not to mention, overflowing with creations taking up space).

Sorry to be so depressing but I needed to vent. If you’ve got suggestions or ideas I’d love to hear them.

I plan to be using my Artfire shop as my main selling venue. New beads will be found there, starting March 1, 2010. Currently, there are older beads as well as my ebooks available there. Etsy also contains my ebooks as well as my non-bead creations.